I must admit that this is an interesting article that proposes many worthwhile, yet unanswerable questions. For this reason, I, like Mr. Russel, am glad that this article was written, even if I don't completely agree with some of the arguments within it. I think it is important to think about this topic, even if the questions don't have one correct answer, in order to be better aware of the situation and potential problems. Even now, a week or so into my second semester as college student, I find myself thinking about, talking about, and even questioning the value of my five years at Uni. (For example, even just last night I was talking to my roomate, discussing the selection of sports at our respective high schools. Of course this is also a regional thing; to my knowledge central Illinois doesn't feature many down-hill skiing teams.)
Unfortunately, both the college application experience and the transition from high school to college are things you must go through before you can truly know how to go about it the best way. (I by no means consider myself an expert on either of those topics, but I do hate the feeling of knowing what I *should have* done.)
Personally, I think that the initial college experience has a lot of luck playing into it. Luck plays a role on who you meet and whether you'll find that niche of people you fit in with and truly get along with.
One of the major problems that Uni creates, which is hinted at at in the article, is that as a "group of friends solodifies," there is a tendency to not go out and meet new people (people outside of Uni). I think that this is a result of Uni's tight, 300-person enclosure, where meeting and getting to know a Uni student of your own age becomes harder as you get closer to graduation and it is much harder to meet people outside of school. Now I'm not saying that students of bigger schools do not have this problem, but they do have a bigger opportunity to meet new people within the school as a direct result of the larger population. For the worried seniors, I'd say go for it; try and find that niche and group of "best friends" in college, but don't forget that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of other people your age to meet.
Mr. Russel and Julian bring up a good point that Uni has a huge percentage of students who not only participate in one extra-curricular, but participate in several, a feat that is hard to pull off at a bigger school. This gives people the opportunity to test out things that interest them. This is a big part of the college experience, especially the first year or so. This is especially true when you go to a small liberal arts school. I'd be willing to say that as seniors you have gone through 4 and a half years of a miniature version of a liberal arts college (minus the class selection/variety. Of course that is one of the biggest problems with Uni, in my mind.) I think that this aspect of Uni is one of the defining features and is a benefit you might not get at a larger school.
Both the small, academic-oriented high schools and the big, public high schools offer benefits, but neither completely prepares their students for the academic or social changes that they must overcome to be successful/happy in college. The issue of whether a Uni student makes an easy transition into college life or not varies incredibly depending on the person and the college. I would not really blame Uni entirely (maybe a tiny bit) for the successes or for the failures.
My recommendation as the first step for avoiding a poor transition into the college world is to avoid going into college with the attitude that you (as a Uni student) are weirder/stranger/more socially awkward than the people you'll meet at college. Use any freshman orientation to get to know people, you'll undoubtedly be running into some of them later.
Life after Uni
I must admit that this is an interesting article that proposes many worthwhile, yet unanswerable questions. For this reason, I, like Mr. Russel, am glad that this article was written, even if I don't completely agree with some of the arguments within it. I think it is important to think about this topic, even if the questions don't have one correct answer, in order to be better aware of the situation and potential problems. Even now, a week or so into my second semester as college student, I find myself thinking about, talking about, and even questioning the value of my five years at Uni. (For example, even just last night I was talking to my roomate, discussing the selection of sports at our respective high schools. Of course this is also a regional thing; to my knowledge central Illinois doesn't feature many down-hill skiing teams.)
Unfortunately, both the college application experience and the transition from high school to college are things you must go through before you can truly know how to go about it the best way. (I by no means consider myself an expert on either of those topics, but I do hate the feeling of knowing what I *should have* done.)
Personally, I think that the initial college experience has a lot of luck playing into it. Luck plays a role on who you meet and whether you'll find that niche of people you fit in with and truly get along with.
One of the major problems that Uni creates, which is hinted at at in the article, is that as a "group of friends solodifies," there is a tendency to not go out and meet new people (people outside of Uni). I think that this is a result of Uni's tight, 300-person enclosure, where meeting and getting to know a Uni student of your own age becomes harder as you get closer to graduation and it is much harder to meet people outside of school. Now I'm not saying that students of bigger schools do not have this problem, but they do have a bigger opportunity to meet new people within the school as a direct result of the larger population. For the worried seniors, I'd say go for it; try and find that niche and group of "best friends" in college, but don't forget that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of other people your age to meet.
Mr. Russel and Julian bring up a good point that Uni has a huge percentage of students who not only participate in one extra-curricular, but participate in several, a feat that is hard to pull off at a bigger school. This gives people the opportunity to test out things that interest them. This is a big part of the college experience, especially the first year or so. This is especially true when you go to a small liberal arts school. I'd be willing to say that as seniors you have gone through 4 and a half years of a miniature version of a liberal arts college (minus the class selection/variety. Of course that is one of the biggest problems with Uni, in my mind.) I think that this aspect of Uni is one of the defining features and is a benefit you might not get at a larger school.
Both the small, academic-oriented high schools and the big, public high schools offer benefits, but neither completely prepares their students for the academic or social changes that they must overcome to be successful/happy in college. The issue of whether a Uni student makes an easy transition into college life or not varies incredibly depending on the person and the college. I would not really blame Uni entirely (maybe a tiny bit) for the successes or for the failures.
My recommendation as the first step for avoiding a poor transition into the college world is to avoid going into college with the attitude that you (as a Uni student) are weirder/stranger/more socially awkward than the people you'll meet at college. Use any freshman orientation to get to know people, you'll undoubtedly be running into some of them later.
Robert Croisant
Uni Class of '07